Digital Commons Network^™

Before Dna, John L. Sorenson, Matthew Roper

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Critics of the Book of Mormon often cite genetic evidence in their attacks on the historicity of the text, saying that the lack of any Near Eastern–American Indian DNA links conclusively proves that no emigration ever occurred from the Near East to the Americas. Their simplistic approach—that the Book of Mormon purports to be a history of the entire American Indian race—is not supported by archaeological or Book of Mormon evidence. The authors pose and respond to questions about the geographical scene, the spread of Book of Mormon peoples, Latter-day Saint traditions about the scenes and peoples of the Book …

What's In A Word? Etymology!, Cynthia L. Hallen

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Scriptural records are important in preserving the words of prophets as well as the language of our ancestors. An etymological study of the important words in scriptures can link us to the thoughts and feelings of people who lived in the past. An example is the word heart, which has meaning both as an essential body part and as a metaphor for one’s thoughts and feelings.

Dna And The Book Of Mormon: A Phylogenetic Perspective, Michael F. Whiting

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

This paper debunks the myth that the Book of Mormon has been proved false by modern DNA evidence. Critics have tried to apply American Indian DNA-based research to the Book of Mormon without designing a study specifically for that purpose. It is extraordinarily difficult to use DNA sequence information to track the lineage of any group with such a complex lineage history as the Nephites and Lamanites. Possible hypotheses about the populations from the Book of Mormon include the global colonization hypothesis (in which the three colonizing groups came to a land void of humans) and the local colonization hypothesis …

Secret Combinations And Flaxen Cords: Anti-Masonic Rhetoric And The Book Of Mormon, Paul Mouritsen

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

Some critics of the Book of Mormon claim that Joseph Smith drew certain terminology from his nineteenth-century environment. In particular, they suggest that terms such as secret society and secret combination may reflect anti-Masonic rhetoric from the period or even that the term flaxen cord has Masonic overtones. This article traces many varied uses of secret combination in nineteenth-century writings that have nothing to do with the Masons. The appearance of these terms in the Book of Mormon does not weaken the historical claims of the Book of Mormon.

Journal Of Book Of Mormon Studies Volume 12 Issue 1, Neal A. Maxwell Institute For Religious Scholarship

Journal of Book of Mormon Studies

The Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting understanding of the history, meaning, and significance of the scriptures and other sacred texts revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Philip Morris Faces "The Truth": A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Persuasiveness Of Two Teen-Targeted Anti-Smoking Advertising Campaigns, Marybeth Mcmurray

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the persuasiveness of anti-smoking television advertisements aimed at teens and produced by Philip Morris's Youth Smoking Prevention Program and the American Legacy Foundation's truth campaign. The advertisements are analyzed rhetorically using Kenneth Burke's dramatistic approach, supplemented by theory related to persuasive advertising, characteristics of at-risk adolescents, persuasive attack, and persuasive defense (apologia).

The analysis indicates that strong central themes present in both the Philip Morris and truth campaigns act as a means of rhetorical persuasion, but are not necessarily rhetoric designed to persuade adolescents not to smoke cigarettes. The truth campaign advertisements contain both strengths and weaknesses. …

Muhammad, Judah, And Joseph Smith: A Sharp Stick In The Eye, Brian M. Hauglid

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of C. Reynolds Mackay. Muhammad, Judah, and Joseph Smith.

Isaiah Interwoven, Kevin L. Barney

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of Donald W. Parry. Harmonizing Isaiah: Combining Ancient Sources.

Allen D. Breck Award Winner: The Presence Of The Past: Shakespeare In South Africa, Natasha Distiller

Quidditas

In what ways has Shakespeare—as a collection of texts, as cultural capital, as a tool of a colonial education system as powerful as the bible and the gun—manifest in South African culture? Today I will sketch the presence of the past in a way which aims to draw out the South African in Shakespeare as much as the Shakespearean in South Africa. I do this following the post-colonial call to redress the imbalance of knowledges between the West and the Rest, and in order to break a simplistic cultural binary which posits “African,” colonized culture on one side and “European,” …

One Small Step, John A. Tvedtnes

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of Francis J. Beckwith, Carl Mosser, and Paul Owen. “Introductory Essay”; Thomas J. Finley. “Does the Book of Mormon Reflect an Ancient Near Eastern Background”; and David J. Shepherd. “Rendering Fiction: Translation, Pseudotranslation, and the Book of Mormon.” In The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement,.

Doing Loshootseed Morphology By Analogy, Deryle W. Lonsdale

Faculty Publications

Analogical modeling (AM) is an exemplar-based general modeling theory that is being applied to an increasing range ofnatural language processing problems. This paper introduces AM as a viable approach to morphological analysis for Lushootseed, and shows results from applying the system to analyze the contents of the transcription of a well-known Lushootseed story. Subsequent discussion mentions the strengths and current weaknesses of the approach. Possible improvements and future applications are also sketched.

Automated Grammatical Tagging Of Language Samples From Children With And Without Language Impairment, Deborah Millet

Theses and Dissertations

Grammatical classification ("tagging") of words in language samples is a component of syntactic analysis for both clinical and research purposes. Previous studies have shown that probability-based software can be used to tag samples from adults and typically-developing children with high (about 95%) accuracy. The present study found that similar accuracy can be obtained in tagging samples from school-aged children with and without language impairment if the software uses tri-gram rather than bi-gram probabilities and large corpora are used to obtain probability information to train the tagging software.

Island Of Tranquility: Rhetoric And Identification At Brigham Young University During The Vietnam Era, Brian D. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

The author argues that beyond religious beliefs and conservative politics, rhetorical identification played an important role in the relative calmness of the BYU campus during the turbulent Sixties. Using Bitzer's rhetorical situation theory and Burke's identification theory, the author shows that BYU's calm campus can be explained as a result of communal identification with a conservative ethos. He also shows that apparent epistemological shortcomings of Bitzer's model can be resolved by considering the power of identification to create salience and knowledge in rhetorical situations. During the Sixties, BYU administration developed policies on physical appearance that invited students to take on …

A Memory-Based Approach To Cantonese Tone Recognition, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Michael Emonts

Faculty Publications

This paper introduces memory-based learning as a viable approach for Cantonese tone recognition. The memorybased learning algorithm employed here outperforms other documented current approaches for this problem, which is based on neural networks. Various numbers of tones and features are modeled to find the best method for feature selection and extraction. To further optimize this approach, experiments are performed to isolate the best feature weighting method, the best class voting weights method, and the best number of k-values to implement. Results and possible future work are discussed.

A More Responsible Critique, Kevin L. Barney

Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 1989–2011

Review of Thomas J. Finley. “Does the Book of Mormon Reflect an Ancient Near Eastern Background?” and David J. Shepherd. “Rendering Fiction: Translation, Pseudotranslation, and the Book of Mormon.” In The New Mormon Challenge: Responding to the Latest Defenses of a Fast-Growing Movement,

Spectral Measures And Perceptual Ratings Of Hypokinetic Dysarthria, Christopher Dromey

Faculty Publications

Ten individuals with Parkinson disease (PD) and hypokinetic dysarthria were compared with age-matched neurologically normal (NN) speakers on acoustic measures from speaking and vowel phonation tasks as well as on perceptual ratings of connected speech. Listeners identified differences between the groups when asked to judge the severity of vocal and articulatory impairment during reading. Several conventional acoustic measures failed to differentiate speakers with PD from NN speakers. However, measures of the shape (statistical moments) of the long term average spectrum (LTAS) revealed statistically significant differences between the groups across vowel phonation, reading and monologue tasks. The ease of computation of …

Teenage Immigrant, Anne Ipsen

The Bridge

The poem by Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty defines the classical model of immigrants fleeing from poverty, oppression, or persecution. They are refugees, forced by intolerable circumstances to move from their homeland. Less stereotypic is the highly skilled or educated individual who makes a positive choice towards better opportunity. These immigrants tend to come as individuals or as a nuclear family and are less likely to live in or identify with an ethnic group. They assimilate more readily, especially if they have some English before arrival, while keeping closer ties with relatives and making more frequent trips to …

Scripture Note: Doctrine And Covenants 125, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

On 19 January 1841, the Lord gave a revelation to Joseph Smith regarding the building of the Nauvoo Temple and issued a call for the faithful Saints to gather to assist in the building of this sacred edifice (see D&C 124: 25-55). With the emphasis on the gathering to Nauvoo and the building of the temple, the Iowa Saints on the eastern banks of the Mississippi were wondering if they should move across the river to Nauvoo. Therefore, in March 1841, the Prophet Joseph Smith posed the question, "What is the will of the Lord concerning the saints in the …

Parenting Skills And Social-Communicative Competence In Childhood, Craig H. Hart, Lloyd D. Newell, Susanne Frost Olsen

Faculty Publications

The ways that children implement social and communication skills in peer-group interaction provide the foundation for successful later life adjustment (Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 1998). Research findings suggest that a host of variables are involved (Hart, Olsen, Robinson, & Mandleco, 1997). These include family processes involving marital and sibling relationships, parenting (e.g., Dunn, 2002; Hart, Nelson, et al., 2000; Stafford & Bayer, 1993), biologically based genetic and temperament factors (e.g., Pike, 2002; Plomin & Rutter, 1998; Sanson, Hemphill, & Smart, 2002), and extrafamilial influences, including the peer group, schools, media, and culture (e.g., Hart, Yang, Nelson, Jin, & Nelson, 1998; …

Effects Of Concurrent Motor, Linguistic, Or Cognitive Tasks On Speech Motor Performance, Christopher Dromey, April Benson

Faculty Publications

This study examined the influence of 3 different types of concurrent tasks on speech motor performance. The goal was to uncover potential differences in speech movements relating to the nature of the secondary task. Twenty young adults repeated sentences either with or without simultaneous distractor activities. These distractions included a motor task (putting together washers, nuts, and bolts), a linguistic task (generating verbs from nouns), and a cognitive task(performing mental arithmetic). Lip movement data collected during the experimental conditions revealed decreases in displacement and velocity during the motor task. The linguistic and cognitive tasks were associated with increased spatiotemporal variability …

Automated Rating Of Esl Essays, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Diane Strong-Krause

Faculty Publications

To date, traditional NLP parsers have not been widely successful in TESOLoriented applications, particularly in scoring written compositions. Re-engineering such applications to provide the necessary robustness for handling ungrammatical English has proven a formidable obstacle. We discuss the use of a nontraditional parser for rating compositions that attenuates some of these difficulties. Its dependency-based shallow parsing approach provides significant robustness in the face of language learners’ ungrammatical compositions. This paper discusses how a corpus of L2 essays for English was rated using the parser, and how the automatic evaulations compared to those obtained by manual methods. The types of modifications …

The Velvet Divorce: Slovakia's Divorcement Of Her Abusive Spouse, Steven C. Page

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Brain Potentials Elicited By Prose-Embedded Linguistic Anomalies, Mark D. Allen, Kayo Inoue, Judith Mclaughlin, Lee Osterhout

Faculty Publications

Linguistic theories distinguish between syntax (sentence form) and semantics (sentence meaning). Correspondingly, recent studies have shown that syntactic and semantic anomalies elicit distinct changes in the event-related brain potential (ERP). However, these results have been obtained with highly artificial methodologies and have not yet been generalized to more natural reading conditions. Here, we recorded ERPs while subjects read a naturalistic prose passage. The subjects either read for comprehension with no other task being assigned or read for comprehension and made acceptability judgments after each sentence. Consistent with prior work and regardless of the subjects’ assigned task, syntactic anomalies elicited a …

The Battles Over Swiss Liberty, Marc H. Lerner

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Between the French Revolution and the Revolutions of 1848, the European conception of freedom and liberty changed dramatically. Likewise with Switzerland, between the Helvetic Republic and the Sonderbund war of 1847, the conceptions of true Swiss liberty underwent radical alteration. In Zurich, Schwyz and Vaud a growing individualistic sense of liberty challenged a collective sense of freedom. To some extent an emphasis on guaranteed individual rights replaced the emphasis on local autonomy and self-rule. The changing understandings of Freiheit or liberte in Zurich, Schwyz and Vaud reflect the changes that occurred throughout Switzerland as well as Europe. The battle over …

Full Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Review

No abstract provided.

End Matter

Inscape

No abstract provided.

Traditions And Civilizations: Another Approach To Understanding Human History, Walter Benesch, Eduardo Wilner

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

What Is Living And What Is Dead In Eurocentrism?, Ricardo Duchesne

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

J.G. Macquee The Hittites, George Von-Der-Muhll

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The Moral Mythmaker: The Creative Theology Of J. R. R. Tolkien, Paul Nolan Hyde

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.